Nanosized titania reservoirs for epilepsy treatment

Around 50 million people in the world suffer from epilepsy. Although there is no cure for this disease, with the right type and dosage of anti-epileptic medication the majority of patients can have their seizures completely controlled. However, chronic drug administration can lead to many side effects, among which language and memory problems, intellectual decline and psychiatric illness. This occurs because only a certain amount of the drug may overcome the hematoencephalic barrier, which requires its higher dosage. Considering this, in situ prolonged drug delivery represents an alternative that has excellent therapeutic benefits. Sol-gel derived titania bioceramic devices proved to be efficient for alternative long term management of epilepsy. Control of phenytoin release kinetics may be obtained by tailoring physicochemical properties of titania matrix, such as its morphology and interaction with the drug. These properties, in their turn, may be varied by changing the sol-gel synthesis conditions, such as water/precursor ratio, concentration of the drug, pH, thermal treatment, etc. Thus, if we know how each of these parameters affects the release profile, we can efficiently design the drug administration according to patients’ needs.